The Wedding Dress Diaries

Chapter Three

Three

‘What is this?’ Amber asked when the valet pulled up with Parker’s car.

‘This,’ Parker said, unable to hold back his grin of affection, ‘is a 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback with a 390 cubic-inch, V-8 engine.’

Face blank, she stared at him.

‘She’s fast and she’s furious and she’s as badass as me,’ he said, knowing the response it would produce. And so what if he enjoyed the roll of Amber’s eyes. He blamed the small slice of pleasure for the words that slid from his mouth next. ‘It belonged to my father.’

A look of tenderness leaped into her eyes and his chest clenched hard, the black hole cinching tight around his heart.

Stretching out her arm, as if to take his hand, she said, ‘I’m sorry—’

‘Don’t.’

He stepped back before he knew what he was doing.

He wasn’t sure where the harsh word had come from. But Parker also knew he couldn’t bear to hear whatever she was going to say next.

And no way could he stand to have her touch him in comfort.

They settled into his car, and he was grateful for the distraction of merging with traffic. The misting rain turned into a steady drizzle and the swish swish swish of the windshield wipers filled the vehicle. Riding in silence, the awkward commute felt longer than it should have, and Parker was almost relieved when they drew closer to her turnoff and he had to ask her for directions.

Once he parked on her street and turned off the car, the rain began to come down a little harder. He slid off his jacket and turned to toss it onto the backseat, noticing her eyes on his chest. And the sharp stab of lust to his groin was unexpected.

‘I’ll walk you to the door,’ he said, gearing up for a goodbye.

‘No need,’ she said. ‘There’s no sense in two of us getting wet.’ She twisted in her seat to look at him. ‘Parker, about the wedding—’

Stomach knotted with tension, he bolted out of the car and rounded to the passenger side, opening Amber’s door. ‘We’re a block away,’ he said. ‘We should get moving.’

He closed the car door behind her with a forceful thunk, because the former stalker had lied to him. She was going to try to convince him to change his mind. And the last thing he needed were two females hounding him about an impossible task.

Amber frowned. ‘It won’t take long to get there, so we can—’

‘We better hurry before the rain gets worse,’ he said, taking her arm.

Leading her up the sidewalk, he glanced at the redhead from the corner of his eye. She had a nice figure. Slim, but curvy enough in the right spots to capture a man’s attention.

‘Parker,’ Amber said, sounding impatient. ‘We need to—’

The skies opened up and began to release a load of rain as if it had grown too heavy to hold. Their mad dash to the awning wasn’t fast enough, and, when they arrived, water dripped down their faces. Parker turned to Amber, trying hard not to appreciate how good she looked wet.

‘The last time I saw you that soaked you were trying to drown,’ Parker said.

Sending him an overly tolerant look, she opened her mouth to speak again. But Parker had other ideas.

‘There’s something I gotta ask.’ He narrowed his eyes at Amber with a curiosity that was genuine. ‘Were you just pretending to be dead so I would do mouth to mouth?’